Infertility treatment hope for cancer patients

Researchers in Canada have revealed that a woman has given birth after receiving groundbreaking infertility treatment.

The procedure involved maturing and freezing eggs in a laboratory, before thawing and fertilising them to create viable embryos.

The researchers claim that the technique could provide a new infertility treatment for women undergoing cancer treatment, which often makes it difficult for women to conceive.

Hananel Holzer, a researcher at the McGill Reproductive Centre in Montreal, commented: "We have demonstrated for the first time it is possible to do this and, so far, we've achieved four successful pregnancies, one of which has resulted in a live birth."

Meanwhile, the British Fertility Society's Dr Allan Pacey, who is also senior lecturer in andrology at Sheffield University, said that the research could be "a very significant step" in enabling women and young girls to have children following cancer treatment.

"Clearly, there needs to be more work done to make sure the technique is safe and the children born from the eggs are healthy, but if this is done this technique could become very important indeed," he said.